Heads Up: The Fire’s Jalil Anibaba goes up for a ball against an unidentified Seattle Player. (Photo by John Gonzales).

Chicago Fire 1-2 Seattle Sounders FC

by Dan Gaichas

BRIDGEVIEW, IL--Defensive errors did not cost the Fire last week in Toronto, but they would on this night as Seattle Sounders FC went out 2-1 winners at Toyota Park. The Fire are now winless in eight matches (0-5-3) in all competitions against the Sounders all-time and winless in twelve (0-8-4) against the three Cascadia sides all-time(Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver).

The Fire had the majority of chances throughout the first half. The closest came courtesy of Daniel Paladini who had an open shot on 14 minutes, but Osvaldo Alonso dove in to deflect it over the bar. Fredy Montero came close for the Sounders in the 27th minute heading over a cross by Leo Gonzalez.

The Sounders would make good in the 39th minute as David Estrada’s otherwise tame shot deflected off Arne Friedrich and past a wrong-footed Sean Johnson.

The Fire thought they had an equalizer through substitute Marco Pappa in the 63rd minute, but it was disallowed after Dominic Oduro was judged to be screening keeper Michael Gspurning in an offside position. Replays confirmed assistant referee Peter Balciunas’s judgement.

"Apparently. I was in front of the goalie obstructing the play," said Oduro on the goal that was waived off. "It was the referee's call. I was in the box, the ball just came and I stepped aside. As far as I know, I never made contact with the goalie. I thought it was a goal."

Four minutes later, it was 2-0 to the Sounders after Sean Johnson spilled a Montero free kick and Eddie Johnson pounced on the loose ball for an easy tap-in to open his account on the season.

Pappa tried to take advantage of the windy conditions to beat Gspurning on three occasions. A shot from 25 yards out was parried over in the 83rd minute. Two minutes later, shot from behind the midfield line was not to far off target. Four minutes after that, a corner from Pappa would find itself in the back of the net to pull the Fire within one.

“It was really unbelievable,” said Gspurning. “We played the second half against the wind so I would say 70% it was a good corner kick, and 30% was the 50mph wind picking it up so I had to step up and by that time it had hit the post and gone in. I’m always a positive guy but I know it will be on all the season highlights now with this goal.”

But the Fire would run out of time and had a penalty appeal denied as Rafael Robayo went to ground in the area late and a Jalil Anibaba shot in stoppage time was stopped by Gspurning as the Sounders continued their mastery over the Fire.

Fire head coach Frank Klopas said that it wasn’t the physical nature of the match that threw the Fire off on this night.

“If you saw the game I thought we came out and played well,” said Klopas. “Our ball movement was very good. I thought we had the better chances in the game and that the second goal took a lot out of us. We scored the one goal, which I didn’t think the goalie could have saved it if Dominic wasn’t there, but I think the second goal was really a difficult one.

“I think the players never gave up and kept playing and that is a positive thing. There were some very good moments in the game as far as being good with the ball, competing, and being good with opportunities. Sometimes the game is cruel, where you deserve to get a goal or two and unfortunately you get a deflection the other way and you give up a goal. To the team’s credit, we kept playing and we kept creating opportunities, never giving up, and I think that’s a good sign.”

The Fire travel to the West Coast to take on Chivas USA on Friday night at 10pm. The match will be televised on ESPN Deportes.